According to Statistics Canada, building permits rose in September for the first time in three months, as strength in the non-residential sector outweighed some weakness in the residential sector.
Canadian municipalities issued $7.9 billion worth of building permits in September, up 3.8 percent from the previous month. A 1.7 percent decrease in the residential sector was more than offset by a 13.9 percent increase in the non-residential sector. A high-value institutional building permit issued in Alberta was behind much of the increase.
The institutional component refers to buildings used to house public and semi-public services such as those related to health and welfare, education, or public administration, as well as buildings used for religious services. In September, a permit for a hospital was the main contributor to the 30.0 percent increase in the value of institutional building permits.
The value of residential building permits edged down $82.7 million (-1.7 percent) to $4.8 billion in September, the third consecutive monthly decline. Ontario posted the largest decrease, mainly due to lower construction intentions for apartments.
Municipalities issued $23.4 billion in building permits in the third quarter, up 1.0 percent from the previous quarter. However, this advance was slightly below the average quarter-to-quarter growth of 1.6 percent since the start of 2016.
The value of institutional building permits reached $2.7 billion in the quarter, with a significant portion coming from high-value permits for hospital buildings in Alberta and Ontario.
The multi-family component totaled $7.2 billion this quarter, up 1.7 percent from the last quarter and the third time in four quarters that the value has exceed $7.0 billion.
Nationally, the commercial component decreased 3.3 percent to $4.3 billion in the third quarter. However, in the province of Quebec, the value of the commercial component rose to $943.7 million, the highest value since the second quarter of 2011. This increase contributed to the province's overall rise of 7.1 percent, to a record high of $4.4 billion.
For single-family dwellings, results were split between the east and west. In the third quarter of 2017, the value of single-family dwelling permits increased throughout the Atlantic provinces and Quebec.